1998 Chateau Rouget

[dstgolf]

A lovely wine that I questioned might get lost with a filet and pepper sauce. Initially opened,tasted and recorked 3 hours prior to dinner. Reluctant nose in the begining with tannins/fruit a little concerning.

With pour into glass this beautifully evolved over the next 11/2hrs through dinner. This was not a wine to gulp but one to savour and linger over the last drops well beyond dinner completion. This kept getting better in the glass and the nose became more lovely with time. Beautiful ripe cherries,plums and red fruits with developing secondary notes of background leather/earthy notes. A lovely Pommerol drinking very well right now with a good 5 yr + window ahead at least with evolution with time giving the impression this may have some room for improvement but why wait with this drinking so well now.

[DavidG]

Nice note - '82 Rouget was one of the first cases purchases I made.

[AlexR]

Excellent value-for-money wine. Glad you enjoyed.

Owned by the Labruyère family who also own Domaine Jacques Prieur in Burgundy.

Alex R.

[jal]

Oh man, this is so good! I must have gone through at least a case. Sadly, I have none remaining.

[stefan]

The 2000 Rouget, for which I paid about $25, also was no slouch.

[AKR]

98 Rouget [Pomerol] We had a bottle of this tonite. J lived in Salzburg at one point in her life and, in memory of that, made jagerschnitzel, egg noodles, and green beans to go with it. I've had this since release, and it was just popped and poured at 64F. Lots of sediment in the final glass. Has a sexy, spicy, sandalwood bouquet. There's other notes in there too - truffles, liqueurs, fruitcake too. It's pretty complex. On the palate its ripe, fruity, and chewy - more on the plum side of flavors. Only 12.5% abv, but it feels bigger. The tannins are resolved, and this drinks well before and during dinner, and the entire bottle is consumed as we clean up. The acidity is either low, or held in check. I've had this a few times over the years, and its probably just past its apogee in terms of maturity. This is a serious wine from an expensive region that doesn't have speculative fervor baked into its price. It lasts a while too, so one can cellar it. I've had a lot of older ones (decant them!) but have yet to dip into more recent vintages 2005 onwards. Quality seems to be inching upwards by reputation, but the 1998 is pretty darn good. It's a tough call whether its a B+ or an A- for me, but its somewhere there. For various reasons, I've always thought of Rouget as sort of like a right bank equivalent to Grand Puy Lacoste...wines nice enough for the weekend or guests but at the same time fairly priced so that midweek open bottle in fridge type of consumption is fine too. And both age, and convey typicity. This might be the last of the pre 2000 vintages left in our house. The SO drinks a lot of this, but we both love Pomerol.

[DavidG]

Nice note Arv. I was about to post that 1982 Rouget was one of my first case purchases. Then I saw you did a deep dive for this thread an ID already posted that over 5 years ago.